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How to Begin Selling on Amazon

By Snap Agency February 15, 2019

Just as the invention of the power loom revolutionized the speed of cloth weaving and helped spark the industrial revolution of the 1800’s, the introduction of Amazon Marketplace to the ecommerce platform guaranteed the world of online sales would never be the same. Amazon’s unique business model, committed consumer base, and widespread popularity quickly made their selling platform the envy of every brand. Introduced in the 1990’s as an online book seller, Amazon has expanded to cross countless industries and currently boats more than 2 billion visitors on a monthly basis. Its product offerings expanded as well—today, it’s likely more difficult to find a product that’s not listed on Amazon.

Business professionals the world over rely on Amazon and its solid reputation to sell their products. Where do you stand on the massive ecommerce platform? Maybe you’re holding out, convinced that online deals through sites like Amazon are a passing phase. However, we beg to differ. Amazon is here to stay—partly due to its widespread success, but thanks in larger part to careful planning and precise execution. By following the company’s example and making some simple changes, you can quickly evolve from a business person just learning how to sell on Amazon, to a seasoned professional.

Strategize for the Niche

Moving fast, selling faster, and delivering products within just two days makes the decision to start selling on Amazon a scary one, no matter how life-changing your products may be. It’s crucial to create a solid marketing strategy before your product launches, so the implementation and sales maintenance processes run more smoothly. Before you begin, take some time to step into the shoes of the consumer base your Amazon listings will target. After conducting research to learn which products, when marketed well, will most effectively increase your conversion rate, diversify your marketing strategy to speak individually to each product. A solid conversion rate on an Amazon product detail page is 15%, a reported 3-5 time higher than conversion rates on other ecommerce sites. Meaning that, when a consumer visits your page, they’re looking to purchase—and quickly!

Ready, Set, Sell

Once you have a solid strategy planned out, it’s time to implement a sales process and get your product listed. Amazon sellers can list products one of two ways through the site: Amazon Retail, and Amazon Marketplace. Overall, the two differ in terms of Amazon’s direct involvement. Amazon Retail acts as a trading partner, where product producers sell their wares directly to Amazon, who fills orders from customers from their purchased inventory.

Amazon Marketplace works similarly to C2C sites like Craigslist: producers sell directly to consumers on the Amazon platform, with the company taking a small cut of the profits for facilitating the transaction. This can happen one of two ways.

Merchant fulfillment allows product producers to sell and ship their wares directly to the purchasers, but products sold this way are not eligible for Amazon Prime benefits.

Amazon fulfillment products are sent out directly from Amazon when ordered. Products sold this way are eligible for Prime benefits and ship quickly. Through this selling route, producers are responsible for keeping Amazon fulfillment stocked, and they also pay fees to have their store presence maintained on the site.

We encourage you carefully investigate these two options in light of the products you want to sell on Amazon, as each option comes with separate requirements for maintaining your presence on the site. Depending on your specific products and production schedule, one method of fulfillment may work better than the other.

Profitability Requires More Than Good Products

Since visitors to your Amazon site are there because they’re already interested in your products, there’s no need to waste their time by pushing content filled with advertising materials designed to persuade customers that they need your goods. Instead, make the most of your product marketing by following Amazon’s guidelines for product advertising and accompanying images.

Pictures are worth 1,000 words. And with the limited ad space provided on Amazon’s listings, your product images and headlines might be the tipping factor in whether or not a consumer clicks “add to cart” on your Amazon product. Sit down with a marketing expert, and go over your postings with a fine-toothed comb. By identifying existing flaws and learning to play to your marketing strengths, you can use strong marketing to make a good product sell.

Maintenance is Key

After starting your Amazon business, it’s crucial that you maintain your products, pages and postings—especially if you’re seeing success! Strive to regularly update your product descriptions, content, and images. By keeping your information fresh, buyers can feel confident that you care deeply about your products, and by extension, the people who buy them.

you should also strive to regularly check and fill your inventory, always keeping an eye on your supply. Depending on the fulfillment source chosen, running out of inventory could result in Amazon removing your product listing.

Get Started Selling With Snap

In addition to these tips, working with a team of marketing experts can help ensure that your products and marketing tactics showcase the best of what your business has to offer. Reach out to Snap today, so we can get you ready for Amazon.